Thursday, October 22, 2015

EDK, it’s pretty much here. The Massdrop release date is
finalized, 26 October 2015. The Massdrop poll is currently up and if you haven’t
voted, please do so. You are going to see some nice photos of the
material/color combinations listed on there. I will give you a brief rundown of
our thoughts on this pen and why we are allowing more customization on it.

Massdrop will have access to the following versions of the
EDK: Tumbled Raw Aluminum, Matte Black Aluminum, Brass, and Copper.
Combinations of those will be available as follows: Tumbled Upper+Black Lower, Tumbled
Upper+Brass Lower, Tumbled Upper+Copper Lower, Black Upper+Tumbled Lower, Black
Upper+Brass Lower, and Black Upper+Copper Lower. Pricing will vary depending on
material combinations and is still being finalized. Likely the pricing won’t be
available until the day the drop starts. This is an initial Massdrop offering
and while we will eventually have these pens available direct, we don’t have a
timeframe for and EDK release via the Karas Kustoms page. So snatch them up
now.

In other Karas news – the INK, for a short time referred to
as INK 2.0, will make its reappearance in early November. We will be adding
full copper and brass versions as well as the brown and olive anodized
versions. There are a few other special features that will be given out closer
to the release date but for now I will just go down the list of functional and
aesthetic design changes/additions we made for this version of the INK.

Starting at the top and working down. After feedback from
quite a few of our initial fountain pen users, we decided to add a clipless
cap. The cap retains the INKs characteristic angles and single line design, but
without the clip is more symmetric and smooth looking. Apparently many people
don’t need or use clips and some people are downright anti-clip. That’s fine
with us, we are happy to accommodate both sides of the “clip” debate.

Another piece of nearly universal feedback we received was
in the size of the nibs we chose for the original INK. We settled on the #5
Schmidt nib as it was easiest to source and used on quite a few pens. But early
users of the INK commented that the size of the nib didn’t quite match the size
of the pen. So all the way back last year Dan began looking at what design
changes needed to be made in order to use a bigger nib. We had to source a new
nib manufacturer as Schmidt doesn’t make a #6 nib, and after much research and
testing we settled on Bock as that source. Then came redesigning the section
length which became a dual benefit as it needed to be lengthened for the new
nib unit to work and adding length to it allowed us to stabilize it with added
thread depth.

During this process we looked at the aesthetics of the nib
and section together. It became apparent to us that we really wanted to try
something different. Something that harkened back to hooded and semi-hooded
nibs popular in the fifties, sixties and seventies. What we ended up being able
to accomplish is slightly recessing the nib back into the section. This doesn’t
affect function at all but makes the look of the nib and section a little more
uniform by not having the plastic “collar” showing when the nib unit is seated
firmly. Meh, let’s call it like it really is, it’s just plain cooler.

As mentioned above we had to change our threads on both the sections
and the caps. This means that the original INK parts are not compatible with
this version of the INK. This was not done intentionally, we attempted to
retain as much backwards compatibility as possible but it quickly became
apparent with the change in nib sizes we would have to alter the section and
cap threads.

We are will be maintaining the colors from the original INK,
though there may be some variance in hue. We will be adding brown and olive to
these pens to give a wider range of colors. When you purchase the ink you will
have the option of swapping sections with material types. So if you wanted a
brass pen with copper section, you could get that. Aluminum with brass section,
no problem. Copper with aluminum section, yep that’s available too.

The date for this release is quickly approaching, and we can’t
wait to get these out the door and into your hands. The changes we have made
were relatively minor but in the end we believe the final product is indicative
of who we are as a company. We adapt and make changes when we need to. We
listen to feedback and value our customer’s voices. We aren’t afraid to admit
we can make something better and we jump at the chance to do just that. We hope
you feel the same way when your INK shows up. And when it does, write us a note
and tell us what you think.

Monday, October 12, 2015

So the giveaway went splendidly. We had quite a few entries. 40 to be exact. That's is quite a few for our first time doing this and the format we used. We would like to thank everyone that participated, I loved all the thoughtful and funny notes that got sent my way. I will be featuring some randomly on the blog here and there and keeping them for future "random" giveaways.

Here is the winner Derek's entry into the contest. It is quite a nice photo, showing a real need of a Cube. Thankfully we can take care of that.

In other news we are now shipping all of our pens assembled with a cartridge. We have been debating this, and recently decided it was time to make the change. Pens that take multiple refills will ship with an EasyFlow 9000 and G2 only pens will ship with a Pilot G2 refill, both will be black. We will continue to sell the refills individually via our website, but you will not need to purchase one at the time of payment in order to have a working pen show up to your doorstep.

So that's the quick news and notes. I will have more exciting news later this week, an INK 2.0 update, news on the EDK release as well as the final date for the production Fountain K release. All of that news will be hitting you in the next 14 days or less, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thursday, October 8, 2015

If you follow us on Instagram you have seen No.1 in this series. Here are the other 5 Signature INK 29 pens. And with them I will go into a bit of the background of the pens.

As a way to celebrate reaching 10,000 followers on Instagram, Bill decided to create something truly special. The idea to do a limited series release has been a goal for us for quite some time. It just seemed like the stars aligned and we could actually do something to move forward with this plan. During one of meetings, we came up with the idea to basically put it all on Bill's plate on what to do. We had just received our brown and olive samples back from the anodizer, and Bill worked those into his design. We didn't know what to expect, but the finished product is absolutely stunning.

Bill decided to create something we hadn't officially done before, a clipless version of one of our pens. But he didn't stop there, he added his own flair to it by creating a cap ring of hand hammered copper. The effect is quite striking but also shows off how "one of a kind" these pens truly are as none of the patterns are even close to similar. He spent quite a few days working them over to make sure the caps were consistent with our standards before he finally signed off on them.

We recently partnered with Mark Bacas (@mbacas) of Nibgrinder to get some Cursive Italic nibs ground. Having had a chance to write with one of his Medium Cursive Italics, I knew these would be top notch. Once we got them back, I made sure to set some aside as I knew they would be a perfect fit for this series of pens.

The pen itself came together quite nicely with the copper merging with the brown and olive quite well. We just had to come up with a name. As no one wanted to be the decider on naming rights, I went with something pretty basic. This is a limited series of our INK fountain pen. But it features copper in a way we haven't done with the INK yet, in the form of the cap as well as the grip. The atomic number of copper is 29, hence the INK 29. Not particularly glamorous but it works.

These pens will be sold via Instagram auction one at a time, with the first auction starting October 9th, 2015. Details on the auction will be listed in each post.

As an aside, we are still taking entries for the Burnt Orange cube and Eversharp Skyline Giveaway. Refer to our older posts for details on how to enter.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Over the past couple months, we have had the distinct
pleasure of teaming up with a bunch of small, American businesses during our 10
Week, 10K Giveaway. I figured I would take a little time to go back and feature
some of the companies we worked with and touch on why we, or I, like them so
much.

First off, one of our oldest collaborators is Jason Crespo (@paperstaxproject)
founder of PaperStax Project (Facebook). PaperStax Project is as much about Jason’s heart
as it is about his products. PS Project arose out of loss and now it helps build
the minds of young people and provide much needed introspection and escape
through journaling and writing in general. But don’t take it from me, read
their mission statement: “The Paperstax Project is committed to inspiring
self-actualization through journaling. We do this by designing and
manufacturing pocket notebooks, then donating those notebooks to--and creating
curriculum for--organizations working with young people to achieve measurable
success--especially in the arts.” Jason and PaperStax epitomize the
community-oriented nature of the people of the United States, the desire to
improve no matter what and to make a lasting impact on those around them. We
feel like that’s a pretty good reason to do just about anything and have had a
wonderful working relationship with PaperStax Project often featuring them in
our giveaways and sending people interested in reliable pocket sized notebooks
in their direction. If you haven’t checked them out you really should change
that.

What do you need to have in order to carry around a Karas
Kustoms pen and a PaperStax notebook? A pretty rugged and reliable case, enter
Nock Co (@nockco). From the minds of Jeffrey Bruckwicki, Master Seamster, and Brad Dowdy,
the intrawebs most powerful and prolific pen blogger, came the idea to create
bags, pouches and cases specifically for the pen loving outdoorsman. What has since
emerged are several wonderfully designed and manufactured items that are
perfectly suited for everyday carry as well as rugged outdoor travel. Strangely
enough they are all named after geographical locations in Georgia. Probably
because both Dowdy and Bruckwicki are Georgia boys. We have supplied Nock Co.
with custom combinations of our Render K (the Red, White and Blue) and look
forward to future collaborations with them. And to be honest half my pens are
sitting tucked away in one of their cases and I couldn’t be happier about that.

We recently started a bit of a collaboration that has less
to do with our pens and more to do with our facial hair. You see over half the
guys that work at Karas Kustoms have beards, and we kind of take our facial
hair seriously. Low and behold we had a men’s facial hair blogger reach out to
us at one point in time, Brian Furby from Title Beard (@titlebeard). He wanted to review a
few pens, we thought about it and after some deliberation and back and forth,
we worked out a swap. He sent us some products from CanYouHandlebar (@canyouhandlebar), as he
works as a representative for the company. What we got were some killer facial
hair products like beard balm, mustache wax and beard oil. CanYouHandlbar is
the brainchild of Doug Geiger. He has some very pointed views on facial hair,
views we feel are pretty dead on the mark. But he puts a lot of time and effort
into his product and it shows. I have had compliments from numerous people,
including my barber, on the quality of the Doug’s products. So we feel that if
you are going to grow some man hair, you should adequately groom that facial
hair and that means using CanYouHandlebar products.

These are just three of the numerous businesses we worked
with in the past two months. More than anything what these companies have in
common is their desire to be makers and innovators of American made products
and ideas. We feel that it is important to have that goal, and more importantly
to work with people that have a similar vision when at all possible. We would
hope you would support our friends in their endeavors just as much as you
support our endeavors. If you need a good pen case, notebook or facial hair
product, please consider our friends as your first choice when doing your
shopping. Drop them a line, and let them know that you heard about them from
us. Together we can start to make American small businesses relevant again.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Only a few entries over the weekend. I was hoping my inbox would be FULL but apparently not. Hope you guys share this giveaway and get some other people to enter, though it does cut down your chances of winning, it provides me with some much needed entertainment as I look through all of your awesome photos and read your responses.

Without further ado, here are the weekends entries.

To break the monotony of just reposting this with entry photos. I am going to put up some cool (cool to me) historic information on the Skyline pen and maybe some other random notes and what not.

To start things off, I decided to pick the items myself.
This giveaway features a Karas Kustoms/Dudek Modern Goods Cube in burnt orange
with white delrin inserts and a restored vintage Eversharp Skyline in Dubonnet red.

To win this pen, you need to do a couple of things. They
aren’t very difficult and you should be able to accomplish them with a quick
note and a photo. First write a short 1-3 sentence explanation of why you
deserve this giveaway. Second take the note and lay it next to an area in your
home, office, car, bathroom that this cube will occupy. Email the photo to karaspenco@gmail.com with the subject "Cube/Skyline Giveaway". All entries will
be assigned a number and the random number generator at www.random.org will be utilized to pick a
winner. The winner will be chosen on October 12, 2015 and announced on the blog and via the Karas Pen Co Instagram
account @karaspenco .

Friday, October 2, 2015

Here are today's giveaway entries. Some really great ones. I particularly like the one that talks about my long winded blog posts, gonna have to do more of those! I guess I could just post more often and do the posts in parts...Oh well, you are at my behest where this is concerned so I guess I can do what I want...Enough of my long winded blog, on to the photos!

In other news, this post will be the OFFICIAL start of the
Karas Kustoms Blog weekly/bi-weekly/monthly giveaway contest. We have to nail
down the time frame on how often we are going to do the actual giveaways, but
we have some pretty nifty thoughts on the items that will be given away.

To start things off, I decided to pick the items myself.
This giveaway features a Karas Kustoms/Dudek Modern Goods Cube in burnt orange
with white delrin inserts and a restored vintage Eversharp Skyline in Dubonnet red.

To win this pen, you need to do a couple of things. They
aren’t very difficult and you should be able to accomplish them with a quick
note and a photo. First write a short 1-3 sentence explanation of why you
deserve this giveaway. Second take the note and lay it next to an area in your
home, office, car, bathroom that this cube will occupy. Email the photo to karaspenco@gmail.com with the subject "Cube/Skyline Giveaway". All entries will
be assigned a number and the random number generator at www.random.org will be utilized to pick a
winner. The winner will be chosen on October 12, 2015 and announced on the blog and via the Karas Pen Co Instagram
account @karaspenco .

Thursday, October 1, 2015

In other news, this post will be the OFFICIAL start of the
Karas Kustoms Blog weekly/bi-weekly/monthly giveaway contest. We have to nail
down the time frame on how often we are going to do the actual giveaways, but
we have some pretty nifty thoughts on the items that will be given away.

To start things off, I decided to pick the items myself.
This giveaway features a Karas Kustoms/Dudek Modern Goods Cube in burnt orange
with white delrin inserts and a restored vintage Eversharp Skyline in Dubonnet red.

To win this pen, you need to do a couple of things. They
aren’t very difficult and you should be able to accomplish them with a quick
note and a photo. First write a short 1-3 sentence explanation of why you
deserve this giveaway. Second take the note and lay it next to an area in your
home, office, car, bathroom that this cube will occupy. Email the photo to karaspenco@gmail.com with the subject "Cube/Skyline Giveaway". All entries will
be assigned a number and the random number generator at www.random.org will be utilized to pick a
winner. The winner will be chosen on October 12, 2015 and announced on the blog and via the Karas Pen Co Instagram
account @karaspenco .

As promised here are some of the awesome and creative entries we have received so far. Please keep sending them do us. We love interacting with our fans and followers.

Thanks to everyone who has entered so far. Be creative. I would love to see some crazy places for your cube and pen combo. It's not going to influence who wins but it will give us an insight to all of our extended KK family.